I'm interested in your opinion on what printer can best support my applications.

1. I'm looking to 3D print center hubs. I believe the material that would work best for this is ABS due to the snap/click on features. As you can see from the link for the center hubs I will need to do some post processing. So I'm concerned about appearance if painted/chromed, etc. If anyone has post processed for painting or chroming I'd be interested in understanding your preparation, process, materials used and results.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cent...CTD4gQ_AUIBygC

2. I'm also looking to replace cracked tail lights for my airstream. I haven't been able to find translucent ABS that could be used for something like this. There is a digital ABS from Stratasys but I believe would be a specific printer. Polyjet? I have a budget of around 3-4K and would like to get as many of these items on my hit list covered in that budget.

https://www.google.com/search?q=airs...40T5oL3XGOM%3A

3. If I happen to run into a product that others are looking for I'd like to help them out and manufacture it for them. Depending on the demand, instead of printing it every time I would consider 3D printing injection mold tooling for small runs of injection molding (25-100 parts).

I might be better off starting with a printer that can handle #1 and #2 and then as things pick up purchase another printer specifically that can handle #3? I'd like to have access to some application support with the 3D printer for material selection etc. I'm leaning towards a Makerbot Replicator 2X since it seems like there is plenty of support behind this company. I think I could only cover #1 with this selection.

http://store.makerbot.com/replicator2x

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks.